Railyards Project Bids Likely To Be Tossed Out

The City of Sacramento is asking the city council Tuesday to throw out the first bids on a 20-million-dollar Railyards road construction project. The project information packet did not tell prospective bidders that 20 percent of the work had to be contracted out to emerging and small businesses. It also lacked paperwork that would allow two companies to bid jointly.

Jon Blank is the project’s supervising engineer. He says the city could try to force the original bid results to stick, but the legal process would take valuable time.

“The arbitrator would review all of the documentation and so we’d have to set up the meeting and then the arbitrator would have to go through it all and the we would have to award or not award depending on the outcome and that would all take a few months,” says Blank.

Time is of the essence for the project which focuses on building 5th Street, H Street, and Bercut Drive extensions at the Railyards.

Property owner Inland American is paying the project costs up front. The State of California will reimburse Inland but only if the project meets a 2015 completion deadline.

Bob reports on all things northern California and Nevada. His coverage of police technology, local athletes, and the environment has won a regional Associated Press and several Edward R. Murrow awards. Read Full Bio